Cellcos that want to optimize mobile data for all users can either build their own content management platform or outsource one. US-based Motricity is banking on the latter
As the mobile internet boom continues to escalate and the mobile industry edges toward 4G, cellcos are expected to become less concerned about link speeds per se and more interested in competing on quality of experience. Network engineering is part of that, and cellcos like CSL in Hong Kong are touting network performance as the foundation for better QoE as a competitive differentiator. A bigger challenge, however, is actually getting the mobile content - whether from aggregated operator portal sites or direct from the web - to the handsets.
That's easy to type but hard to do, at least for cellcos that want to do more than just provide an access pipe to websites and apps storefronts. Optimizing that process into a one-click experience to get online and start surfing and socializing involves aggregating (and constantly refreshing) vast amounts of content and making sure it gets to the right device in the right format (OS, screen resolution, etc) - not just for smartphones but feature phones as well. To pull that off, cellcos have a couple of choices - invest in a platform that can handle all that complexity and hire the expertise to run it, or outsource it to someone who has already done it.
The latter is where companies like Motricity come in, and that's the proposition that the company is bringing to Asia.
Motricity provides a hosted managed software platform for mobile content (dubbed mCore) running on five data centers worldwide serving over 30 million users, most of them in the US. As of July, mCore hosts over 30 million media titles and apps, and over 10,000 apps providers, widget providers and content providers. It also counts the four biggest cellcos in the US - AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless - among its customer base.
"Our platform handles the majority of their data services," says Motricity CEO and founder Ryan Wuerch. "If you're on AT&T and you push that [mobile internet] button on the smartphone, that's Motricity's servers and technology handling all that."